WWDC 2014: TUAW staff predicts keynote announcements

We're just a couple hours away from the WWDC 2014 keynote, where we will get our first official look at what Apple's been working on for the past year, especially in regards to iOS and OS X. Here's what TUAW staffers believe will (and won't) be discussed. What's your wacky predictions? Let us know in the comments.

Steve Sande

Steve provided us with a top 10 list:

The iWatch will not be announced, but there may be some reference to future wearables since developers will need to start preparing to work on such a device.

Home automation platform announcement is a solid prediction. Won't be iHome, though, since another company already appropriated that name for hotel room docks years ago...

HealthBook or whatever Apple decides to call the "quantified self" platform is a go.

Opening parts of Siri to developers will happen.

At least one announcement of upgraded hardware - my guess is that a faster Mac mini will be available. Hopefully smaller as well!

I'd be interested to see if any sort of iTunes subscription program is finally unveiled as part of a change to iOS/OS X, but my bet is that this sort of iTunes overhaul would be a part of the next iPhone/iPod refresh later this year. I don't think we're going to see the iWatch either. But like Steve mentioned above, they're going to refer to it coming so developers could get ready for it unless it's closed off from third-party developers at first like the original iPhone. I'll be surprised, but thrilled, if we get a new Apple TV.

I wonder if we're going to see any changes to Time Capsule/Airport thrown in as well. It would be interesting to have iBeacon integrated into an Airport Base Station as part of a home-automated network.

Mike Wehner

I don't think Apple can announce the health tracking functionality of iOS 8 without addressing the hardware it would need to go along with it -- like the iWatch, for example. So either we'll see both Healthbook AND the iWatch, or neither.

New iMacs would be nice, as would a Retina-equipped MacBook Air, but I'm not holding my breath on those.

Definitely a thorough look at the new OS X, and lots and lots of iOS-style flat textures making the move to the desktop.